SHOE LACE PROTECTOR

Abstract

The present invention provides a unique and simple device to protect shoelaces. According to the present invention, a shoelace protector provides a protective cover over shoelaces where the shoelace protector includes: an upper portion wherein upper portion includes a means for attaching said upper portion to a shoelace configuration; and a lower portion wherein the lower portion includes a means for attaching said lower portion to the shoelace configuration and the lower portion abuts the upper portion. The shoelace protector effectively and substantially covers the shoelace configuration by using the upper portion and lower portion. The means for attaching includes at least one opening in the upper portion and at least one opening in the lower portion.

Description

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an apparatus used to provide protection for shoelaces in order to prevent and control excessive wear.

2. Description of Related Art

A wide variety of footwear is available on the market for the consumer. A substantial amount of the footwear on the market incorporates shoelaces in order to secure the shoe in place on a wearer's foot. Shoelaces are used in a variety of shoes, however numerous athletic or gym shoes include shoelaces. The athletic or gym shoe has grown in popularity over the most recent years and has become a shoe of choice for many consumers in their daily lives due to the comfort and convenience.

Shoelaces in their present form are usually open and exposed to the environment that the shoe may encounter during use. Shoelaces normally loop through eyelets that are located on the upper portion of the shoe usually along two rows. The shoelaces are inserted at the distal end of the shoe, lace through the eyelets and exit at the proximal end of the upper portion of the shoe. The laces are laced over a tongue portion of the shoe where the tongue provides a barrier between the laces and the wearer's foot. The wearer may either firmly tie the laces in place or in some occasions loosely tie the laces in order to ease the insertion and removal of the user's foot. In either circumstance, shoelaces remain exposed and subject to the wear and tear that they may encounter.

The popularity of the laced shoe as a normal every day shoe in turn creates a number of shoes with similar styles and characteristics. Therefore it may be difficult to distinguish one shoe from the other and therefore difficult for the individual to create a unique look and appearance to their shoe.

Attachments to cover a shoelace are well known in the prior art and have addressed this issue in various manners. Many of the shoelaces covers disclosed in the prior art use complicated mechanisms to attach and secure the shoelace cover therefore makes the daily use of such a feature complicated and cumbersome for the consumer. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a shoelace cover and protector that is simple and easy for the consumer to use, but yet provide a suitable means to protect the objective shoelaces. It would be a further advantage to provide a shoe protector and cover that could provide a means to flexibly distinguish and artistically decorate the wearer's shoe.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a shoelace protector for providing a protective cover over shoelaces comprising: an upper portion wherein upper portion includes a means for attaching said upper portion to a shoelace configuration; and a lower portion wherein the lower portion includes a means for attaching said lower portion to the shoelace configuration and the lower portion abuts the upper portion. The shoelace protector effectively and substantially covers the shoelace configuration by using the upper portion and lower portion. The means for attaching includes at least one opening in the upper portion and at least one opening in the lower portion.

In one exemplary embodiment, the means for attaching includes four openings in the upper portion and four openings in the lower portion. The four openings may be positioned near the perimeter edge for both the upper and lower portions. In one exemplary embodiment, the shoelace may be inserted into these openings in order to attach the protector over the shoelaces, alternatively a separate tie string may be provided to secure the protector in place. In addition to the providing a protective cover, the upper and lower portions may be adorned with decorative designs in order to distinguish one shoe from another.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of a shoelace protector according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows components of the shoelace protector according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows alternative components of the shoelace protector according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 depicts the shoelace protector according to the present invention with an alternative connection means.

FIG. 5 shows another exemplary embodiment of the shoelace protector according to the present invention.

FIGS. 6A-6G show exemplary designs that may be depicted on the shoelace protector according to the present invention.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary shoelace protector 5 according to the invention. The shoelace protector 5 includes two components a top cover 10 and a bottom cover 20. Although shown as two components, in another exemplary embodiment these components may be joined as one composite unit for insertion over shoelaces. The shoelace protector 5 may be placed over the object shoelaces by insertion of a shoelace 32 through openings in the shoelace protector 5. The shoelace 32 is shown in FIG. 1 and provides a means to secure the protector 5 over the shoelace in order to protect and prevent exposure to a substantial portion of the shoelace. The object shoelace is therefore protected and consequently the useful life to the shoelace is extended.

The shoelace protector 5 as shown in FIG. 1 extents over the entire shoelace used to lace a shoe 30. The shoe 30 is not shown in its entirety and merely a toe portion 30 and tongue 34 are shown for illustrative purposes. The bottom cover 20 of the protector 5 completely covers the lower portion of the shoelace. The top cover 10 covers the remaining portion of the shoelace and therefore the entire shoelace receives protective covering. Alternate embodiments may include use of the protector 5 wherein the protector 5 may not cover the entire shoelace and some portions of the shoelace are exposed. The exposure of the object shoelace however would remain limited and a substantial portion of the shoelace would remain covered.

FIG. 2 depicts the components of the shoelace protector 5. As shown in FIG. 2, the shoelace protector 5 comprises the upper portion 10 and lower portion 20. The noted significance of the portions in FIG. 2 relates to the dimension of the said portions. In FIG. 2 the upper portion 10 is shown as somewhat the larger than the lower portion 20. This particular embodiment will be advantageous in certain situations where the shoe protector 5 is used in conjunction with a shoe wherein the upper portion expands wider than the lower portion of the objective shoelace. Although exact dimensions may vary and are not specifically set forth in FIG. 2, the proportionality would be in relation to parameters set in a current shoe industry. Also shown in FIG. 2 are openings 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d of upper portion 10 and 21a, 21b, 21c, 21d of lower portion 20. The respective openings provide an attachment means for the insertion of the shoelace in order to secure the protector 5 in place. In this particular embodiment, four openings are depicted in the upper and lower portions, however fewer or even more openings may be utilized in order to provide the attachment means.

FIG. 3 depicts another exemplary embodiment of the shoe protector 5. As noted in FIG. 3, an upper portion 15 and a lower portion 25 comprise the subject matter of the shoe protector 5. As shown in FIG. 3, the upper portion 15 and lower portion 25 are separated however depicted with substantially the same size and dimensions. As shown in the previous embodiment, upper portion 15 includes openings 17a, 17b, 17c, 17d that allow for the insertion of the object shoelace in order to provide the attachment means over the shoelace itself. Lower portion 25 further includes openings 27a, 27b, 27c, 27d that provides the attachment means for the lower portion 25 over the objective shoelaces. The substantially equal dimensions of the upper portion 15 and lower portion 25 would be advantageous wherein the shoelace was worn and tied with an even dimension throughout.

FIG. 4 depicts the shoe protector 5 according to the present invention with the upper portion 10 and lower portion 20. An additional feature is shown in FIG. 4 specifically a means for connecting and attaching the shoe protector 5 over the objective shoelaces. Tie strings 40a, 40b are shown through openings 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d of upper portion 10 and tie strings 42a, 42b are shown through the openings 21a, 21b, 21c, 21d of lower portion 20. The tie strings 40, 42 provide the means for connecting and attaching the shoe protector 5 over the objective shoelaces without the intervention of the shoelaces themselves. This alternative means of attachment enables for the ease of attachment and detachment of shoe protector 5.

FIG. 5 depicts yet another alternative embodiment of shoe protector 5 with upper portion 13 and a lower portion 23. As noted in FIG. 5 these upper portion 13 and lower portion 23 are joined in one composite body. The openings 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d remain available over upper portion 13 and openings 21a, 21b, 21c, 21d remain available over the lower portion 23. This alternative embodiment shows the shoe protector in a composite form wherein the entire protector 5 is one complete piece. The complete structure of shoe protector 5 enables coverage of the objective shoelace and may be used in the same manner as described in the prior embodiment. This embodiment may also use the addition tie string features shown in FIG. 4 as an alternate means to attach the shoe protector over the objective shoelaces.

In addition to providing a protective means, the top surface of shoe protector 5 may be adorned with decorative designs. The decorative designs of the shoe protector 5 may be embedded or embossed in a permanent manner. Alternatively, the decorative feature over the shoelace protector 5 may be interchangeable through the use of a means of temporary attachment thereto. FIGS. 6A-6G show some exemplary decorative designs that could be used on the shoelace protector 5. These decorative designs could be of any nature and coincide with the user's taste. FIGS. 6A-6G represent only a portion of exemplary designs, many designs may be utilize.

The instant invention has been shown and described in what is considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments. It is recognized, however, that departures may be made there from within the scope of the invention and that obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

Claims

1. A shoelace protector for providing a protective cover over shoelaces comprising:

an upper portion wherein upper portion includes a means for attaching said upper portion to a shoelace configuration; and

a lower portion wherein lower portion includes a means for attaching said lower portion to the shoelace configuration and lower portion abuts the upper portion, and said upper portion and lower portion substantially cover the shoe lace configuration.

2. The shoelace protector according to claim 1, wherein said means for attaching includes at least one opening in the upper portion and at least one opening in the lower portion.

3. The shoelace protector according to claim 1, wherein said means for attaching includes four openings in the upper portion and four openings in the lower portion.

4. The shoelace protector according to claim 3, wherein the four openings in the upper portion are equally positioned at opposing sides of the upper portion and the four openings in the lower portion are equally positioned at opposing sides of the lower portion.

5. The shoelace protector according to claim 3, wherein the four openings in the upper portion are positioned near the outer perimeter of the upper portion and the four openings in the lower portion are positioned near the outer perimeter of the lower portion.

6. The shoelace protector according to claim 2, wherein means for attaching further includes at least one tie string laced through the at least opening of the upper portion and at least one tie string laced through the at least opening of the lower portion.

7. The shoelace protector according to claim 3, wherein means for attaching further includes at least one tie string laced through at least one of the four openings of the upper portion and at least one of the four openings of the lower portion.

8. The shoelace protector according to claim 1, wherein said shoelace protector covers the entire shoelace.

9. The shoelace protector according to claim 1, wherein said shoelace protector covers a substantial portion of the shoelace.

10. The shoelace protector according to claim 1, wherein the upper portion and lower portion are substantially the same dimensions and abut each other in order to provide coverage of the shoelace.

11. The shoelace protector according to claim 1, wherein the upper portion is dimensionally larger than the lower portion and abut each other in order to provide coverage of the shoelace.

12. The shoelace protector according to claim 1, wherein the upper portion and lower portion are adjoined into one composite means to cover the shoelace.

13. The shoelace protector according to claim 12, wherein upper portion and lower portion cover the entire shoelace.

14. The shoelace protector according to claim 13, wherein upper portion and lower portion cover a substantial portion of the shoelace.

15. The shoelace protector according to claim 1, wherein upper portion and lower portion includes at least one decorative design.

16. A shoelace protector for providing a protective cover over shoelace comprising:

an upper portion wherein upper portion includes four openings in the upper portion, where the four openings are positioned on the outer corners of the upper portion; and

a lower portion wherein lower portion includes four openings in the lower portion, where the four openings are positioned on the outer corners of the lower portion to the shoelace configuration and lower portion abuts the upper portion, and said upper portion and lower portion substantially cover the shoe lace configuration.

17. The shoelace protector according to claim 16, further including two tie strings for the upper portion and two tie strings for the lower portion.

18. The shoelace protector according to claim 16, wherein the upper portion and lower portion are adjoined into one composite piece to cover the shoelace.